'The exact significance of 'objectivistic' and 'reconstructionistic' approaches of social problems has not yet been sufficiently settled. This dilemma is illustrated on the basis of empirical data of the 'Social democratic prison reform' in Bremen in the beginning of the seventies. In a very brief time the 'reformers' revolutioized the prison system. The men's prison which was characterized until then by a rather authoritarian structure and had been excluded from the external world liberalized its regime drastically. The analysis shows a clear tendency. On the one hand, the process of 'producing' and 'solving' social problems depends mainly on the subjective perspectives of the people involved into the controversial process of constituting the 'prison problem'. On the other hand, the 'objective' social background of that time (Zeitgeist) that allowed the definition of some special features of this processes as problematic is essential, too.' (author's abstract)|